LBV

An LBV is a Load Bearing Vest. I was issued one back in '95 shortly before leaving for the Mid East. It was awesome. You could get about 60-70 lbs on it, it was EXTREMELY comfortable and lightweight and the weight distribution was ideal. There were places to put everything you could need for 3 days in intense combat. What I didn't know, but quickly learned was that this was kind of a prototype. I quickly learned a few things about it. It was useless for what I did for a living.

The built in magazine pouches were located on the chest. Perfect for tactical entry. A tactical entry is when you charge into a room with 4-7 other guys and commence clearing the building. You could do this a few dozen times an hour sometimes and you would engage targets at distances that were measured in feet. Take an AK round to the chest at 20 feet and your survival chances have diminished greatly. That's why body armor with ceramocarbide ballistic plates existed.

The vest was so comfortable because it was worn directly on the body. It didn't fit over the armor. It was designed that way.....Why?

It was green and brown cammo colored....why? I never conducted building sweep and clears in the forest or jungle. It was normally around....buildings, duh! If you wore it in "conventional ops", desert, forest, jungle type engagements and you hit the prone position, you knocked the wind out of yourself because you had 6 loaded aluminum M16 magazines on your chest. It hurt like hell, plus you weren't wearing a flak vest or armor. AND.....you could not access your magazines in the prone... a pretty choice position when the shit is flying overhead. You would have to roll over to reload, thus exposing yourself to more fire AND having an empty weapon.

It was VERY useful for training ops with demolition. I never wore any type of protection then. Simply because there was no point. If I screwed up setting a cap into a satchel charge (20 lbs of C-4), nothing on earth is going to help you. There isn't really a chance of there being anything left.

I traded it in for the "obsolete" Cold War era H harness with web belt. It fit over the flakvest and armor, carried the same crap, though not as comfortably but who cared.

I LOVED that vest. I though it was perfect until I took it to combat. It functioned as designed, but didn't function for the missions it was assigned to.

I still have it, and the H harness. Ask Delores, she's seen it.